The chart below illustrates the marked gender difference in 1-5 spans. From this study, the mean 1-5 span for males is 8.9 inches (22.6 cm) and for females, 7.9 inches (20.1 cm), a difference which is statistically significant at the 5% level.
With average-sized hands, if you casually spread your hand across the keys, its span will measure around 6.7 inches and can cover an octave. If you add the 9th note, your hand's expansion would be increased to 7.6 inches. Adding a 10th note would further augment your hand expansion to 8.5 inches, and so on.
A 'small hand' is defined as one with a thumb to fifth finger span of less than 8.5 inches (21.6 cm) and/or a second to fifth finger span of less than 6 inches (16.2 cm). Boyle (2013) has supported a definition of a 'small hand' (in relation to playing the conventional keyboard) to be consistent with Farias et al.
The center for the females is shorter than the males. The male's center is between 8.5 inches and 9.5 inches and the female center is somewhere around 7.5-8 inches. The females don"t have any outliers, but the males have one outlier in the range of 7-7.5 inches.
His technical perfection was legendary. It was said that his large hands were able to span a twelfth (an octave and a half or, for example, a stretch from middle C to high G).
It has been said that composer Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943) had extraordinarily large hands. If you ever attempt to play one of his extremely difficult piano pieces, you might agree.
Pitch Picking. Like many virtuosos, Franz Liszt had what is known as “perfect pitch”: he could name and recreate a note's pitch without a reference note.
People with small hands and short fingers can play piano. As with most instruments, pianos are made with all kinds of players in mind, especially modern versions. With exercises and with practice, you can overcome small hands and short fingers to play piano just as well as anyone!
The average hand size for adult males is 7.44 inches. So anything over 8 inches is considered “big.” (Of course 4 aces is considered a big hand also.)
There's no noticeable difference between a pianist's and a typical hand's vein structure. Even the most well-practiced pianists will not have excessively veiny hands. While a piano player's hand might be stronger than an average hand, the veins will not be much more pronounced.
The hands should be flexible but not hypermobile – in other words, not double-jointed. The fingers should always be curved, and they should never bend backwards at the joints.
While it's common to see professional pianists watch their hands as they play, some of them will also close their eyes at times so they can better concentrate on the sound of the music.
To play a tenth on the standard piano, a handspan (distance from thumb to smallest finger) of roughly 8.5 inches is needed.
Measuring your hand span
Align the outside tip of your little finger (pinky) with the zero marking and stretch out your thumb along the ruler until it starts to hurt. Read off the measurement on the outside edge of your thumb, and this will give your active 1-5 span.
Pianists should practice between 30 minutes to 4 hours per day. Beginners will benefit most from shorter practice sessions while advanced pianists will be more accustomed to longer days. Each practice session can be split into segments to help avoid physical and mental fatigue.
Most pianos have a standard key width and length, so if you're hands are small sometimes tough to play the instrument. Younger students struggle with this especially; trying to reach chords and perform octave passages. It does help to have large hands so that you can reach certain octaves and form big chords easily.
You can't increase your hand size, but there are stretching exercises you can do on the piano every day that increase your comfort playing intervals that are otherwise uncomfortable. These exercises should increase your flexibility over time.
Great pianists come in all shapes and sizes. There is no specific type of finger size or length that determines your potential. Typically, most people will learn the piece from beginning to end and continuously practice until they can play the entire piece well.
Characteristics such as shoe size and hand span are determined by genetics but influenced to some extent by environment. Good nutrition and good health allow us to grow more quickly, and will mean these characters have a larger value than they might in other circumstances.
Typically, the association between hand span and height has observed to be positive, moderately strong, and linear, with relatively few outliers. That is, people with larger hand spans tend to be taller.
Famous musicians including Ella Fitzgerald and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart had perfect pitch, which has been considered a rare ability.
Which musicians and singers have perfect pitch? Some of the greatest classical composers, including Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin and Handel all had perfect pitch; and it's not so rare in the pop world either. Mariah Carey has it, as did Michael Jackson, Ella Fitzgerald and Bing Crosby.
There have been several well-known musicians with perfect pitch in music history. Below are the names of ten classic and contemporary artists with perfect pitch: 1. Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750): German composer, organist, violinist, violist, Kapellmeister and singer from the Baroque era.